Otomedius Excellent

Game Overview

In 2007 Konami made a return to coin-op, shoot ‘em up games with the spiritual successor to the Parodius series, OtomediusThe marriage of Gradius gameplay and cute schoolgirls, this title was the spiritual successor to the Parodius series, and the first Konami shooter to hit arcades since Gradius IV: Resurrection in 1999.. In place of the usual mascot characters that had featured in Konami’s previous cute ‘em up series, the games now featured sexy schoolgirls as the playable characters. It was still a shooter, hardcore and difficult, in the vein of Parodius and Gradius before it. And it was relatively successful, even in the slowly fading arcade market that seemed less and less friendly to scrolling shooters.

Three years later, then, the company returned with another title in Otomedius series, although this time exclusive to the Xbox 360, skipping over arcades entirely. The game, Otomedius Excellent, was another mascot cute ‘em up shooter featuring sexy schoolgirls, although this time with even more ladies based on various Konami franchises. This included Kokoro BelmontThe kid sister of Julius Belmont, Kokoro was introduces in Otomedius Excellent as one of the students of the St. Gradius school. She would go on to fight against the evil Bacterian armada alongside her fellow students., little sister of then newly introduced hero Julius BelmontHeir to the Belmont clan and last known member of the clan to carry the whip, the Vampire Killer, in the battle against Dracula... who just so happened to be Soma Cruz. Julius ended up befriending the kid instead of killing him, trusting that Soma could be a good person and not give in to his dark side., a heroine who flew around using her whip and sub-weapons in the battle against the Bacterian alien fleet. And, in a word, it was just as weird and strange as its predecessor.

It wasn’t as warmly received, however. Reviews at the time dinged the game for poor gameplay and its harsh, hard difficulty. It was a punishingly mean game, ruined further by intermittent slow down and bad programming. Some even complained about it feeling like a cynical cash-grab (although, really, all of these games are, in a way, pretty cynical in their desire for money). Still, these ratings didn’t help the game’s prospects, leading many to ignore it entirely rather than suffer through the few charms this game had to offer.

And, so far, that’s been it for the series. One sequel and then not another peep more. After the failure of this title to excite fans, Konami squashed the Otomedius (and, with it, Parodius) franchise entirely, leaving it as another series the company regards as not worth bringing back in any form. Hell, even with the presence of sexy schoolgirls in the title, the company hasn’t thought to make sexy gambling machines out of the series (like they have with Castlevania). This series is, for all intents and purposes, as dead as can be and likely will remain that way.